London, July 27: With the No. 1 spot in the ICC Test rankings at stake (third placed England need to beat India by a margin of two matches to gain the top spot) and England already 1-0 up in the four-match Test series, a leading English Daily today wrote, “Cricket fans are being urged to act fast if they want to see England's quest to become the world's best Test team in the three remaining rubbers against India after a "mad" Tuesday of sales filled every seat for the opening four days of the final match at The Oval next month.”
The publication further added, “Following England's dramatic final-day victory against India, the current No.1 nation, at Lord's on Monday there has been a rush on ticket sales at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston, the venues for the second and third Tests of the series.”
An England and Wales Cricket Board spokesman was quoted as saying, “The advice is definitely to act fast if you want tickets."
With seats now remaining only for the final day of The Oval Test match which starts on 18 August, a salesperson at the box office was reported as saying, "It's been a mad day of sales. There are no tickets left for the first, second, third or fourth day of the Test match. Availability is very good for the final day; tickets start at £15."
Ahead of the second Test match at Trent Bridge, Derek Brewer, the chief executive of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club said, "We are expecting a great crowd and we are really looking forward to staging the match.”
Comparing the hype surrounding the series between the current No. 1 and No. 3 Test sides to the Ashes he added, “In my experience this is like the situation around the Ashes in 2005.”
It has been reported that fans are only able to gain admission on Monday, the fourth day of the second Test match, thanks to staggering fan interest in the series. The Indian team are expected to fight back at Trent Bridge to retain their ranking while England are just one win away from the top position.
The newspaper quoted the Trent Bridge box office saying, "Most [of the tickets] are still on offer for Monday, which also gets you in on the Tuesday, for £30 to £40."
David Collier, the chief executive of the ECB, was quoted as saying, "I think it was one of the very special days in Test cricket and [brought back] great memories of the 2009 Ashes series, the Old Trafford day [in the 2005 Ashes], and [it’s] so fitting that it was the 2,000th Test match, the centenary Test between England and India. What a great advert for Test-match cricket. Great day for cricket."
Speaking about the momentous day when fans had begun queuing at 2 am to get their hands on one of the 20,000 tickets placed on sale, Collier added, "It's something we've done for a number of years now on day five – it's something we talked about the night before.
"Obviously, you've got to just have to work out how many wickets are left, what the day's play will be like,” he explained.
On the final day of the historic Test match all three results – an India win, England win and a draw - were theoretically possible.
"The MCC got the ticket pricing spot on, it was a fantastic atmosphere, so many children [at Lord's] on school holiday who could enjoy the day for free and that is fantastic for the future of cricket in general, not just Test match cricket," Collier observed.
